Self-care it is a symbiotic relationship between the inside and the outside. The one who is reading this is already on the track of what is a healthy living. Or want to channelize the energy more towards a healthier lifestyle.
Personally, I have been inspired by the work and passion of Amy. Her research has helped me help my friends and clients but mostly understanding myself the symbiotic relationship between the gut microbiome and the skin microbiome.
Both are interconnected. Our bodies are home to trillions of good bacteria that protect us from the bad ones. Something apparently not related like antibiotic consumption, eating GMO, increased sugar consumption, mold, results in having an impact on the gut flora reflecting on the outside with skin rashes, rosacea, blackheads and even active acne.
What you use on your beauty and self-care regimen that is not friendly to your skin microbiome affects your gut microbiome in the long term with a decreased population of good bacteria, reflux, leaky gut etc.
While we know more about incorporating probiotics and prebiotics in our eating habits, we know a little less about keeping a balanced skin microbiome. Of course, the usage of natural skincare is the first step to understanding it. But we are keen on knowing more in a mindful way about the little invisible friends on our skin that have associated us throughout the entire human evolution. Yep, they are our friends. No good bacteria no humans 🙂
Sounds gross but this was the biggest mistake the beauty industry didn’t take into account while formulating beauty products. That counts for the food industry too.
Steps into having a healthy skin microbiome
1. Redefine “Clean”. What is clean?
The good news is that the new health and lifestyle age of coaches, educators are agreeing more and more that clean is not being sterile and killing off the good bacteria on your skin, scalp, hands. The new clean is keeping the balance within the microbiome which helps us keep any kind of inflammation at bay.
ALSO READ: What Is Clean Eating? 7 Simple Rules To Live A Healthy And Clean Lifestyle
2. Identify your products.
From sanitizers to shampoos, face creams, cleansers, your indoor cleaning habits. None should result in sterilization of good bacteria. Avoid products that contain parabens, conservators, harsh chemicals. Ask for locally handcrafted cleansers, and beauty products and detergents.
3. Organic food
Eat seasonal bio-organic food, apply slow food concept. Start your garden 🙂
ALSO READ: Going Organic Without Breaking The Bank
4. Fermented foods
Include more fermented foods in your diet. ACV, kombucha, kefir, organic wine, sauerkraut, fermented bio-organic soybeans etc. Ask Amy’s delicious recipe for homemade kombucha. 🙂
ALSO READ: How To Make Fizzy Kombucha Tea (+ why you should have a glass every day)
Find more step to create a healthy skin microbiome below!

5. Beauty rituals
Include beauty rituals such as massage, guasha, and lymphatic drainage to flush out the toxins in the skin beneath and guide all those vitamins you ate to your face and body. We are made 70% of water. What happens to a bucket of water if we don’t change the water? It goes bad and stinks. The same happens to our bodies. If you want to glow it must flow. Increase the circulation. Either if it is blackheads, blemishes, stagnant tension, dull skin, the guasha will restore light to your face.
6. Avoid foaming agents
Use non-foaming cleansers on your face. Foaming agents are not microbiome friendly.
7. Bio-fermented beauty ingredients
Include bio-fermented beauty ingredients and beauty products. Incorporate whole plant masks, not plant-derived, but whole plants, such as leaf powders, root powders, petals that make a perfect skin food by boosting the collagen and containing enzymes that come to help to your skin rejuvenation. Rinse your scalp and face with fermented rice water. This will make a radical change to your skin. Have you wondered why Korean women have a fair ageless skin? 🙂
8. Skin detox
Create a skin detox routine that includes bath salts, flowers, clays, essential oils. These will help your skin breath by taking away the dead skin cells. Time to time scrub your body with coffee grounds and always be gentle while rubbing it on your skin. These combinations of salt baths and on occasion coffee scrub will help you not going for over exfoliating with sugars. ( Sugars and salts rubbed too often on your skin can cut the tissues) This way your skin is let to breathe, and your microbiome will feel happy with it. 🙂
If you want to reset and heal your body from the inside out, CLICK HERE to access a 10-day whole food fruit and veggie detox that won’t leave you hungry or short of nutrients
About the author
Anxhela Panxhi is a Natural Beauty Crafter, Herbalist Practitioner, and Holistic Esthetician
Instagram: http://bit.ly/2EU9JEL
LinkedIn – http://bit.ly/2FkTkqz
Thanks for reading. I hope this information was helpful. Until next time!

Amy Goodrich
Crazy cat lady, life and food lover, certified biologist, and holistic health coach.